Valerie Whittlesey Increasing Student Learning of Diversity in Psychology

Valerie WhittleseyIncreasing Student Learning of

Diversity in PsychologySEPA Meeting

March, 2006

Outline

• Reasons for Teaching about Diversity Issues in Psychology

• Attitudes and Experiences of Psychology Faculty in Teaching about Diversity & Recommendations

• Reviewing Diversity Research in Teaching of Psychology & Recommendations

• Conclusion

Importance of Teaching about Diversity

• Allows students to be fair and equitable in their interactions with other people

• Helps prepare students for employment in an increasingly pluralistic society after college

• Makes psychology more relevant for all students

Importance of Teaching about Diversity

• May encourage students from all backgrounds to enter the psychology profession

• Will increase students’ knowledge of psychology

• Will enrich students’ emotional and personal development

Teaching Diversity: Experiences and Recommendations of APA

Division Two MembersJane Simoni, Kathy Sexton-Radek,

Karen Yescavage, Harriette Richard, Alene Lundquist

Diversity Survey- Purpose

• Descriptive data on respondents, their institutions, and students

• Respondents’ attitudes toward teaching diversity issues

• Respondents’ recommendations for diversity resources

Teaching Diversity Survey

• Survey distributed to Division 2 members in 1995

• Survey sent to 2,108 members

• 703 members responded

• Return rate- 33%

Diversity Survey- Demographics

• 14% Asst. Professor• 23% Assoc. Professor• 37% Full Professor• 5% Emeritus

• 8% Teachers• 6% Adjunct

Instructors• 1% Visiting Professors• 6% Other Positions


• 33% Liberal arts college

• 20% Community college

• 11% Technical institution

• 11% Research university

• 19% Comprehensive university

• 6% high school


• 40%- Less than 3,000 students

• 19%- 3,000- 4,999 students

• 12%- 5,000- 6,999 students

• 11%- 7,000- 9,999 students

• 18%- Greater than 10,000 students


• 37% Suburban institution

• 32% Urban institution

• 29% Rural institution


• 27% Midwest

• 21% Mid-Atlantic

• 21% South

• 9% West

• 7% New England


• 80% White students

• 10% African American students

• 6% Hispanic students

• 3% Asian American students

• 1% Native American students

Diversity Studies- Demographics

• 62% Women

• 38% Men

Diversity Study- Multicultural Courses Taught

• 12% Psychology of Gender

• 2% Psychology of Minority Groups

• 2% Racism and Sexism in America

• 3% Women and Society

• 15% taught one of four multicultural courses

Diversity Survey- Importance of Diversity Education in Courses

• 1 (not important)

• 5 (of major importance)

• Mean- 3.94

• SD- .86

• Between 3 (somewhat important) to 4 (important)

Diversity Survey- Time Allotted to Discussion of Diversity

• 14%- One class period

• 40%- A couple of classes

• 20%- A couple of weeks

• 13%- Most of course

Diversity Survey- Issues of Diversity

• 89% Ethnicity and social class

• 77% Ageism• 73% Appreciation of

diversity

• 71% All sexual orientations

• 40% Cultural isms• 12% Gender

perspectives

Diversity Survey- Goals in Teaching Diversity Issues

• 85% Heighten sensitivity and awareness

• 77% Broaden understanding of human condition

• 72% Tolerance

• 44% Enhance psychological mindedness

• 32% Expose personal perspectives

• 13% Political action• 8% Other

Diversity Survey- Pedagogical Methods to Attain Goals

• 69% Lectures & discussions

• 57% Textbook readings

• 49% Field trips and discussions

• 39% Other

• 38% Guest speakers• 37% Selected readings• 35% Student

Presentations• 28% Videotape and

discussions• 25% Research papers

Diversity Survey-Barriers, Aids, and Successful Strategies

• Three open-ended items about barriers, facilitating factors, and successful strategies

• Two raters & content analysis of respones

• Interrater reliability (.90 to .94)

Diversity Survey- Barriers

• 27% Incorporating diversity issues into courses was not relevant

• 23% Time constraints

Diversity Survey- Barriers (con’t)

• 25%- No barriers• Most barriers listed by

less than 10% of respondents

• Student apprehension• Lack of adequate

resources• College univ.

curriculum

• Professor inadequacy• Low department

support• Campus climate• Heightened tension• Community climate

Diversity Survey- Facilitating Factors

• 30% Resource rooms & books

• 17% Workshops• Less than 10%• College curriculum• Videotapes• Campus climate

• Community perception

• Student attitudes• Parental attitudes

Diversity Survey- Successful Strategies

• 18% Discussion• 14% Experiential

activities• 11% Cross-

disciplinary approaches

• Less than 10%• Student presentations• Campus-wide

activities• Media presentations• Community activities• Papers• Journal articles

Teaching Diversity: Experiences and Recommendations of APA Division Two

MembersFollow-Up Study

Loreto Prieto, Val Whittlesey, Diane Herbert, Carlota Ocampo, Allison

Schomburg, and Dominicus So

Diversity Survey- Follow-Up Study

• Survey distributed to Division 2 members in 2000

• Survey sent to approximately 3,000 members

• 648 members responded

• Return rate- 22%

Diversity Study-Follow-Up Study

• Although the return rate was lower than original study, the demographic institutional, campus, and course based characteristics of the 2000 sample match known population parameters of 2002 STP membership survey.

• Also, descriptive data on respondents, their institutions, and students similar to 1995 study.

• Results similar to 1995 study; respondents’ attitudes toward teaching diversity issues and recommendations for diversity resources.

Diversity Survey- Follow-Up Issues of Diversity

• 94% Race/ethnicity• 94% Sexual

orientation• 91% Sex/gender• 86% Ageism• 82% Social class

• 78% Physical disabilities

• 78% Religion• 73% International• 70% Mental/learning

disabilities• 66% Language

differences

Diversity Survey-Follow-UpBarriers

• 57% Time constraints• 36% Lack of

perceived training/resources

• 21% Diversity issues are not relevant to course content

• 18% Student apprehension about dealing with diversity issues


• For the follow-up study, faculty respondents were additionally asked four questions:

- their own personal level of acceptance toward diverse persons

(broadly defined)

- the level of importance they attached to incorporating diversity issues

into their courses

- their estimation of the level of importance their students attached to

having diversity issues incorporated into courses

- the level of acceptance they have felt from their students when

diversity issues have been incorporated into courses

Diversity Survey-Follow-Up Study

• Each item was constructed on a 5-point Likert scale with Not accepting/not important and Very accepting/very important as polar anchors.


• Faculty acceptance of diverse persons (mean = 4.7; sd = .53).

• Faculty perceptions of the importance of incorporating diversity issues into their coursework (mean = 4.2; sd = .94).

• Faculty perceptions of the importance their students attach to having diversity issues incorporated into their courses (mean = 3.4; sd = .99).

• Faculty perceptions of the acceptance of students to incorporation of diversity issues into course work when instructors included it (mean = 3.9; sd = .82).

Diversity Survey-Recommendations of Both Studies

• Ensuring that more psychology faculty see the relevance of diversity issues in the psychology curriculum.

• Overcoming time constraints and lack of training and knowledge of diversity that faculty feel.

• Need to focus on all facets of diversity.

• Examining directly student attitudes of the importance they attach to incorporation of diversity into course work and their acceptance of this incorporation.

Review of Diversity Research in Teaching of Psychology:

Summary & AgendaCarlota Ocampo, Jane O’Connor,

Loreto Prieto, Val Whittlesey

Diversity Review

• David Johnson’s database obtained from the webpage of the Office for Teaching Resources in Psychology

• www.lemoyne.edu/OTRP/index.html• Used to identify TOP works published from

1974 to 1999• Authors manually consulted TOP 2000

issues

http://www.lemoyne.edu/OTRP/index.html

Diversity Review- Diversity Categories

• Aging• Disability• Gender• International• Nontraditional

students

• Race/ethnic• Several diversity

categories• Sexual orientation• Social class• Religion

Diversity Review- Taxonomy of Methodologies

• Activities• Articles• Bibliographies• Comments• Course descriptions• Demonstrations

• Empiricals• Equipment• Reviews• Software• Surveys• Symposias• Interviews

Diversity Review- Raters

• .91 Interrater agreement coefficient in determining which articles were diversity related

• .97 Interrrater agreement coefficient in determining the diversity category that the articles fit into

• .90 Interrater agreement coefficient in determining the methodology for the diversity studies

Diversity Review- # and % of TOP Diversity Studies

Total Studies Published 1974-2000

N = 1,860

Total # of Studies Published 1974-1987

N = 994

Total # of Studies Published 1988-2000

N = 866

Diversity Studies 1974-2000

N = 136

7.31%


N = 46

4.63%


N = 90

10.39%

Diversity Review- Diversity Categories of Studies

• 35% Gender• 17% International• 13% Aging• 12% Several

categories• 10% Race/ethnicity

• 10% Sexual orientation

• 3% Nontraditional students

• 0% Social class• 0% Disability• 0% Religion

Diversity Review- Methodologies of Diversity

Studies• 30% Articles• 25% Courses• 19% Activities• 10% Empiricals• 5% Comments• 4% Surveys

• 3% Demos• 2% Interviews• 1% Software• 0% Bibliographies• 0% Equipment• 0% Reviews• 0% Symposias

Diversity Review- Frequent Diversity Methodologies

• International articles- N = 12

• Gender courses- N = 11

• Gender empirical studies- N = 10

• Gender classroom activities- N = 9

• Gender articles- N = 8• Several diversity

category articles- N = 7

• Aging classroom activities- N = 7

• Racial/ethnic courses- N = 6

Diversity Review-

• The 70 works in the previous slide represent 50% of all diversity studies published in TOP between 1974 to 2000

• Publications concerning gender issues constitute 38 or 28% of total diversity works

Diversity Review

• 28 diversity empirical works represented 1.5% of all published works in TOP and 21% of diversity studies published in TOP from 1974-2000

• Eight (28.5%) of empirical diversity articles during the earlier period

• 20 (71.4%) of empirical diversity articles during the latter period

Diversity Review- Empirical Diversity Studies

• Gender (17; 61%)• Sexual orientation

(4;14%)• Aging (3;11%)

• General diversity (3;11%)

• International (1;3.5%)

Diversity Review- Empirical Diversity Studies

• One-third of studies exploratory in nature

• Gender based issues offered more information regarding previous findings or theory related to study in question

Diversity Review- Recommendations

• Increase amount and programmatic focus of diversity research

• Increase theory driven empirical research using experimental design

• Continued attention to differential impact of teaching curriculum, materials, and methods on diversity

Diversity Review- Recommendations (con’t)

• Increased use on development of instruments to measure diversity teaching goals

• Increased examination of underexamined groups• Increased knowledge about psychology and its

ability to address diversity issues• Increased understanding of and support of diverse

psychology professoriate

Documents

Valerie Whittlesey Increasing Student Learning of Diversity in Psychology